Re: Does Codd's view of a relational database differ from that ofDate& Darwin? [M.Gittens]

From: paul c <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac>
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 17:12:23 GMT
Message-ID: <Xt%oe.1586185$Xk.1565074@pd7tw3no>

Paul wrote:
> paul c wrote:
>

>>i'd like to know what problem the never-ending arguments about nulls are
>>aimed at.  in mundane applications at least (which i think is where most
>>people spend their time), what is the problem with using empty strings
>>for unknown names or zeroes for unknown number values?

>
>
> Because the empty string or zeros might also be valid values.
> ...

perhaps i confused things a little by mentioning empty strings instead of blanks. personally, i find it hard to care whether i know that i don't know a person's name or whether i simply call him him Mr. 'blank'.

maybe i know the wrong people but most people i know are content with items on an invoice having a price of zero dollars (maybe i shipped an item an item before i knew its price) assuming this is anticipated by the application or preferably the db with partial invoices or somesuch notion. i think this is easier to explain to people than 3-valued logic.

p Received on Mon Jun 06 2005 - 12:12:23 CDT